


EneMy Skill

by Fly



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen, Magic, Video Game Mechanics, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-17
Updated: 2010-02-17
Packaged: 2017-10-07 08:26:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fly/pseuds/Fly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud gets attached to a new kind of magic. Written all in one go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	EneMy Skill

It was rolling in the back of the test subject chamber, alone and glassy, frosted over with a fine Mako sheen from the atmosphere that had been in there. It sounded a little, with that sparkling, sharp Materia sound, as Cloud poked at it with his foot.

He couldn't understand why it was here - maybe something to facilitate what Hojo was planning to do with Aeris, he thought, picking it up grimly. Concentrating on it, it didn't feel like a Materia that'd do that. But it did feel - animal. And very empty. He'd never seen anything like -

 

_ \- I know what this is,_ he thought. _In SOLDIER. I was told about it - _

\- but he couldn't remember any of the details, or even remember when or why; everything else was lost to that white haze inside him.

He slotted it into his sword anyway.

\--

It stayed worthless for what felt like forever, but woke up once the monster-hunting machines started attacking them, just outside of the reach of the shadow of the Plate. The one in front shot a homing missile; in a sudden flash of inspiration Cloud drew his sword up and slashed it straight across the middle - halves skidding out behind him, sparking. Something keened through his mind, and grabbing his head, he sunk to his knees. Barret rattled off volley after volley behind him, and he vaguely registered he was shouting Cloud's name, asking if he was alright. But Cloud could feel wires under his skin; currents breathing through them. It was a whole different flavour to the usual sensations of feeling like he was in someone else's body, and not as bad, but by the time he'd managed to get back to his feet the machines were shot up too fine even for scrap.

The next robots got battered to death by memories of those missiles, swelling out behind him and striking. Aeris shielded her eyes from the shrapnel; Barret gave him a look with his lip slightly curled, but said nothing. As they carried off across the plain, Cloud still felt smug about it.

\--

Using the monster-magic felt different to planet-magic. It was the magic of things that had been drenched in Mako, not the magic of synthetic Materia, refined and purified to ask only a single, basic request; Planet, burn that, Planet, freeze that, Planet, he'd look so much better with Frog legs. Fire magic, just to start with, was so simple that Red XIII naturally had it in his body the same way he naturally had skin and fur and bones. But that was why Cloud found he wouldn't exchange it with everyone, even when Aeris begged him to let her use it for a little while. Its wildness made it more useful, more convenient. Carefully-isolated elements and curses didn't work as well in actual battle as the difficult-to-control mix of techniques the Materia remembered. It seemed to him to work better with the way he fought, and so he kept it, feeling proud as it learned new things. One night, playing with it idly in his Tent, he'd decided he'd teach the thing everything it could learn in the world, even if it meant he had to get in the way of all the attacks in the world. After all, it might learn something he could use against Sephiroth - and he could take it.

Tifa stopped him once, though, as he lit the camp fire - it was mostly to show off in front of Barret, but instead of letting Aeris do it as usual, or using a match, he'd held the yellow thing and threw back his head and heaved a plume of the fire of the Ark Dragon from his mouth. The wood scorched and took; Cloud gave Barret a _ha_ smile, and for a fraction of a second he felt cool until he then started coughing from all the smoke. Barret laughed at him, casually, and he'd been annoyed enough to not notice Tifa was behind him.

"Enemy Skill, right?" Tifa asked. "I've heard about that."

"They're rare," Cloud added, eager to show off how much he knew about them. "I've never actually used one before this. We only used to get Planet-magic and Summon-magic in SOLDIER."

"Yeah, they must have been powerful," Tifa said, looking at her foot. Cloud tilted his head, trying to see her expression more clearly, but realised he was just looking stupid and stood up straight.

"Just - you know, how it learns its techniques..." she started, but trailed off - "remembering the skills used by monsters and machines. Doesn't it feel weird copying?"

Cloud shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Tifa pinched her lips together, and he wondered for a moment if she was going to shout at him, but instead she just smiled, and said, "well, that's good," before walking away.


End file.
